The most important SEA key figures

Search Engine Advertising" plays an important role in the marketing strategy of a company. It is a subarea of search engine marketing. It refers to the placement of paid ads in the search engine results pages. These include Google, Yandex, Bing and Baidu, for example. In the search queries, they appear as paid results even before the organic results. To do this, they must be marked as ads. The placement takes place via booked keywords on the searched topic.

The advantage of SEA is that it leads to success after a short time. Therefore, it is well suited for product launches or for new websites. If you want to draw attention to a campaign or a product for a certain time, SEA is a good choice. The ads usually appear within a very short time.

In contrast, there is search engine optimization. This is intended to improve the ranking of websites in the organic area. However, it can take half a year for the website to appear in the top positions. Therefore, search engine marketing always includes both areas in order to achieve the greatest possible success.

Search engine advertising is a powerful marketing tool for the success of an online marketing campaign. It can also be used for regional campaigns. Google alone records more than 3 billion hits per day. Most users only look at the first results page. It's good if your own website appears there.

How can SEA be optimized?

Google Ads is the advertising network which, together with the Google Display Network, represents the main source of income for the search engine. The question now arises as to how an SEA campaign can be optimized. In doing so, it is not necessary to make decisions based on gut instinct.

Everything is measurable, because there is a wealth of tools and key figures to monitor all relevant data. The goal is to present ads exactly when the user is searching for your offer. The primary factor here is the business objective. The objectives determine the selection of advertising measures as well as the budget.

These are possible goals of an online marketing measure:

  • Increase reach
  • Improve visibility
  • Increase ad quality
  • Make online marketing campaign profitable
  • Acquire new customers
  • Increase sales

Advertising success can be measured precisely using the Ads KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). These are used to determine the use of the advertising budget. Since there are many key performance indicators, all of which are interrelated, it is important to understand them precisely.

How often does the ad appear on the results pages?

Die Zahl der Impressionen zeigt an, wie oft die Anzeige in den Suchergebnissen auftaucht. Die Gesamtimpressionen zeigen, wie hoch das Suchvolumen des verwendeten Schlüsselwörter ist. Dies gibt wertvolle Einblicke in die Reichweite des Werbenetzwerks. Es sagt jedoch nichts darüber aus, ob die User eine Werbung tatsächlich wahrnehmen.

How often does a user click on the ad?

Each click brings the user to your website. This tells us whether the user considered the ad relevant. It is a good indicator of whether the user feels addressed by the ad. This value corresponds to the number of users the ad has reached. With ads, the advertiser usually pays for clicks.

Click-through rate (CTR)

The click-through rate is the ratio between impressions and clicks. It is the percentage of users who actually go to the ad. This value is an important indication of the quality of the designed ad. An ad that generates thousands of impressions but doesn't generate a single click isn't going to do much good. The click-through rate tells you whether the ad encourages people to click.

The formula for this is:

  • Clicks/impressions x 100 = Click-through rate (in %)

If users see the ad 1000 times and ten of them click on it, the click-through rate is one percent. A high rate is a sure sign of relevance in online marketing. The higher this number is, the more users perceive you as a competent contact.

Already here you can readjust by checking text and address. This shows how well a keyword converts. Keywords that contain a purchase intention convert better than informal keywords. In the Google Ads campaign manager, you will find corresponding fields that indicate these values.

Relevance is an important criterion

There should be a connection between the booked keyword and the ad. Both must be found in the headline as well as in the text. The customer's journey continues in such a way that keywords and landing page fit together. The landing page must be designed to create a positive user experience. Google always wants to deliver the best possible result, so this aspect is included in the evaluation.

How profitable are my ads?

Search Engine Advertising costs money, so every advertising campaign should be as profitable as possible in order to provide the greatest possible benefit.

The profitability of an advertising strategy can be measured with these key figures:

  • Cost-per-click (CPC)
  • Cost-per-Lead
  • Conversions
  • Conversion rate (CVR)
  • Cost-per-order (CPO)
  • Revenue per click
  • Return on Advertising Spend

The advantage of online marketing is that virtually everything can be measured. For example, conversions indicate whether the visitor actually performs the desired action after clicking on an ad. This includes sales, leads, contact inquiries or newsletter sign-ups.

Important key figures for store operators

Since the online marketing expert always has to keep an eye on costs, there are key figures for cost control. For example, cost per click means the real costs incurred on the click of the website. In addition, there are costs that arise for a contact address. Then one speaks of cost-per-lead. In addition, there are further subtypes such as cost-per-order, which are incurred when an order is placed.

Also important is the "Return on Advertising Spend", which indicates the actual profit achieved per advertising spend. It is a subset of return on investment that generally indicates the relationship between sales and costs.

These figures are mainly interesting for store operators who want to make a reasonable profit. There even the turnover per click is interesting to know how much turnover the single click on the ad brings. Here, the generated revenue can be divided by the number of clicks.

In addition, an average shopping cart value is calculated. This value indicates how much money the user spends on average when shopping in the online store. The revenue is divided by the average conversions.

Always adapt SEA key figures to your own information needs

The possible key figures and KPIs offer a wide range of analysis options. Every SEA manager must therefore adapt the available measurement methods to his or her individual needs. This depends very much on the company in question. Only consult the metrics that are meaningful for your company, so that there is not a flood of unnecessary information. With the appropriate software and the included tools of the search engines it is possible to keep the overview. As a full service agency Munich we help you to find the right strategy for your company.